Thank you for visiting our forum. As a guest, you have limited access to view some discussion and articles. By joining our free community, you will be able to view all discussions and articles, post your own topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload photos, participate in Pick'Em contests and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today!!

It was Bucknell. I wasn't impressed by their team, a squad picked to finish fourth in the Patriot League behind Army, Navy, and Holy Cross. I saw a lot of mistakes on their part that would not likely happen if we were playing an SEC team. Still, here are the positives.

I like the infield defense. DC Arendas looks like a slick fielding 3B with a bat. Mooney was solid at shortstop. With English in Center and Greiner behind the plate, we are very solid up the middle defensively.

The offense was helped a lot by walks, hit batters, errors, and poor defensive positioning. How many seeing eye singles did we get?

The pitching was outstanding. It is hard to be critical of a pitcher who throws a near no-no. Still, I thought Crowe seemed to have some difficulty spotting his change up. An SEC lineup is going to sit on the fastball until he proves he can throw strikes with the off speed stuff. Unlike the Bucknell hitters, an SEC team is going to have guys that can hit fastballs.

I admit I had some honey-do interruptions and did not get to watch all of the outing.

Agreed Bucknell isn't very good and it is early, but I'm very encouraged by this opening series. Probably the biggest unknowns right now are the bullpen roles. Also trying to develop some depth behind Greiner as well. If we can do that and stay relatively healthy, I believe we are going to have a big, big year.

Bullpen is the big unknown of course. Widener, Britt, Fiori, Seddon, and Mincey stood out to me out of the pen.

Starting rotation looks very strong. We know what Montgomery and Wynkoop can do and now we know what Crowe can do. 6.1 hitless innings in your debut is impressive no matter who you face.

Bucknell is weak but we didn't look like a team playing it's first series. Little to no stupid mistakes, good hitting approach all the way around. We're an experienced team in the field, and it showed.

Our lineup should be toward the top of the SEC this year. 1-9 they're solid, but 1-5 will be especially tough on opposing pitchers.

English still can't steal bases, even with his tremendous speed. It's mystifying.

I wouldn't right Tanner off just yet..... for what it is worth, I heard that Tanner was something like 24-28 in stolen bases in the preseason. And I believe Adrian Morales is working close with the players on base running, which can only help.

Offensively, this years team should be better than last year I believe....... And the Fielding percentage should be higher as well with the sure hands of Marcus Mooney at SS!

I believe Wil Crowe is also the real deal. He will make some mistakes, but he will also amaze at times as well!

Greiner appears to be ready to have a breakout year as well. Defensively, Greiner is already one of the best...... but his ability to crush the ball like he did today makes him an almost certain first rounder in my opinion.

Overall, I believe we are as good or better than we were last year, with the only real question mark being the pen...... if the pen is solid, we could have one hell of a year! Really looking forward to watching it unfold!

Pankake has matured SO much side he was a freshman. He can go yard at any time. Kmart is a monster. Grayson is also a monster and the best catcher in college. Watch out for Celek in the DH spot.

We have struggled on offense the past year, not anymore. We have stellar pitching and the bats to win any game.

This Clemson series is gonna be fun. They could have lost all 3 of their games this weekend. We are gonna steam roll the tiggers. Get your brooms ready. You know they are shaking after their performance and watching us. All I have heard is Daniel Gossett this and that, well he just got beat on opening day by a mid-week team. Enough said.

Happy to get the series sweep.
Went out and beat a team they were supposed to.
Sadly we probably won't know what we are really working with until after the Clemson series (and even then I'm not sure, with how bad they were this weekend).

I can see us with 15 wins (law of averages says we will lose a game at some point) before we enter SEC play.

Should sweep Eastern Kentucky, Brown and Stetson.
Should win the PC midweek game...but the Furman game March 11 could be tough.

From what I saw, Vogel has some control issues but could be great, Tanner needs to use two hands to catch the ball, Crowe still needs to work on that change up, pankake I would like to see in the outfield, or pitching I think that's where he will be in the pros. Everything else was pretty good, I still wish Saiko was here, but this team has potential

Our middle infield looks really good and I think with K-Mart and Arrendas on the corners we can be special. I think Joey should be in the outfield and pitching. I'm glad we got some innings for a lot of pitchers. Some of them have potential to be really good as well. Not a bad series, even considering the competition.